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STORIES ARE REALLY IMPORTANT
Chief Dr. Sophie Pierre on gaining knowledge, sharing stories, and loving life.
I do have a story. Each of us has stories. Stories are really important. That’s what keeps us connected to each other as human beings is story.
Chief Dr. Sophie Pierre is a respected Ktunaxa elder, long-time leader, and former ITBC Board Chair. She worked with the Ktunaxa to transform the painful history of the Kootenay Indian Residential School into St. Eugene Golf Resort Casino, a tourism legacy of reconciliation, truth, and community empowerment.
Transcribed from ITBC AGM 2025 panel conversation.
And it's that thing, that thing that’s special, that we share as we go out on our day.
We each have something special, each and every one of us.
Each and every day we get up, we thank the Creator for today and what makes today special, what gives us our goal in life and how we can go on and help others.
And that’s what I do today, I go out talking to people and sharing my experience and saying,
“Look at me. I’m 75 years old, and I’m loving life every day.”
We gain knowledge throughout our lifetime. But that knowledge isn’t just something for us to keep to ourselves. That knowledge is only useful when you pass it on to others. This is something that I was taught very clearly, very definitely by my mother, by my grandmother.
Until one day, I looked around and realized that that was me.
Each and every one of you will come to that point when it becomes your responsibility to pass on that knowledge.
I always looked around the room for the Elder, for the Knowledge Keeper, for someone to come share the knowledge.
Our responsibility is then to put our hand out to reach out for the young people coming along.
We have all of these people in our communities. We know that we have the storytellers in our communities. The ones that are quieter, that are going to be doing the carving or the painting, basketmaking–sharing that kind of knowledge. We have them.
It goes without saying that we have the responsibility as grandparents
to build in the supports for our young people that are going to help them with their goals, to carry out their responsibilities, because before long they are going to be sitting in the position that I am now, where they are going to say “Where’s the Elder–oh it’s me!”